WASHINGTON — Alex Ovechkin scored his 886th career goal into an empty net Sunday to move nine back of breaking Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record.
Ovechkin backhanded the puck in from centre ice with 1:29 left in the third period to seal the Washington Capitals’ 4-2 victory over the Seattle Kraken that extended their winning streak to four games.
“He’s still getting a couple of looks here and there, but he’s finding ways to score,” linemate Dylan Strome said. “It’s what he’s done his whole career and especially this year. He’s getting to the right areas. And obviously when the goalie is pulled, we’re all thinking it. I’m sure everyone else is thinking it, too. It’s still a pretty skilled play to go backhand through a guy’s leg or stick and find a way to score that. Nine more.”
It was Ovechkin’s league-leading eighth empty-netter of the season and 65th of his career, which is the most of any player in NHL history.
Fans chanted, “Ovi! Ovi!” as the red, white and blue goal counter that was unveiled in one corner of Capital One Arena earlier in the week flipped from 885 to 886.
“We all know what’s happening and how historic it is,” Strome said. “It’s incredible. We obviously want to get him on the ice. He does a great job of finding ways to get open. I know Carbs (coach Spencer Carbery) said it a couple of weeks ago, but he goes to where the puck is going to be and the right spots and those are huge goals.”
The 39-year-old’s 33rd goal of the season was also the 1,600th point of his two-decade career. He is the 11th player reach that mark and the second active after Penguins captain Sidney Crosby.
“What I’ve learned with ‘O’ is you never underestimate — or even when he’s off a little bit and it doesn’t look great or his line is struggling or whatever it might be, then it just takes one moment,” Carbery said. “We win a hockey game and he’s got another goal, another one down. You just can never underestimate what he’s capable of doing.”
Ovechkin remains on pace before the end of this season to pass Gretzky’s mark of 894 that long seemed unapproachable before the end of this season.
“We all thought it was an unreachable mark at some point in time,” said Kraken coach Dan Bylsma, who saw a lot of Ovechkin during his time with Pittsburgh. “We all put it in the category of, ‘Well, that’s never going to be reached.’ But Ovechkin has been scoring 50 goals (a season) for an awful long time now. The number is what the number is, but I think what Alex has done is he’s going to be the greatest goal-scorer of all-time. He shows no signs of stopping, so it’s just a matter of time now that he will … officially take the mark as the greatest goal-scorer of all-time.”
Longtime teammate John Carlson, who set up Connor McMichael’s go-ahead goal with 4:16 left that set the stage for Ovechkin to add to his total, said the final part of this pursuit is “going to be a movie,” and more specifically a documentary.
Asked about potentially assisting on No. 895, Carlson joked, “I think that’s up to him, who he wants in the documentary.”
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